Year-end team building for international teams: bringing every country together

Your teams are in Paris, Barcelona, Montreal and Singapore. Some of them have never worked in the same room, not everyone speaks the same language, and when it is 10am in Paris on December 15th, it is already evening for part of the company. Yet you want one shared moment to close the year. How do you organise a year-end event that brings international teams together?

This guide is for HR teams, internal communication managers and leaders of teams spread across several countries. It starts from your three real constraints: time zones, languages and holiday calendars.

The 3 headaches of a multi-country year-end event

• Time zones. Beyond three or four hours of difference, there is no comfortable slot for everyone. A live event always leaves part of the teams out, or makes them play at 10pm.
• Languages. An activity run only in French excludes your international colleagues. An activity run only in English makes part of your French teams uncomfortable.
• Holidays. Year-end holidays do not start at the same time everywhere. A single date in December always misses someone.

What works with international teams

• The right format for your time zones: a game people play whenever they want if your teams are far apart, or a live collaborative game if you can find a common slot (see below).
• A game available in French and English, so everyone plays in the language they are comfortable with.
• A ranking by country or by office: friendly competition between subsidiaries creates conversations and collective pride.
• A short closing session on video, at a time that suits most people, recorded for the others if needed.

Our solutions to bring teams from several countries together

The Christmas escape game, in short weekly missions

Every week in December, a new 15-minute mission opens. It stays open until the end of the challenge: your Montreal team plays in the evening, your Singapore team in the morning, and everyone counts in the same ranking. The game is available in French and English. It is the only format where everyone truly plays at their own time.

→ Discover our Christmas escape game for the whole company (page in French, the first mission can be tested for free).

The live online escape game, hosted and bilingual

Here it is the opposite: everyone plays together, at the same time. That is its strength, since each player has a different screen and clues the others do not have, and the team can only move forward by talking. It is also its constraint: you need a common slot of about 1.5 hours. Our scenarios "Savants fous" and "DGSE: Opération clandestine" are available in French and English, and a single session can mix both languages.

→ Discover our online team building escape games

Finding a common slot: the real time zone puzzle

If you choose a live collaborative format, everything comes down to the time. Here are the slots that work in December (Paris time), for a 1.5-hour session:

• Europe only: no difficulty, from 9am to 5pm.
• Europe and the Middle East or India: 10am to 12pm in Paris, which is 1pm to 3pm in Dubai and 2:30pm to 4:30pm in Bangalore.
• Europe and Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong): 9am to 10:30am in Paris, which is 4pm to 5:30pm in Singapore.
• Europe and the US East Coast (Montreal, New York): 3pm to 4:30pm in Paris, which is 9am to 10:30am in Montreal.
• Europe and the US West Coast (San Francisco): 5pm to 6:30pm in Paris, which is 8am to 9:30am in San Francisco. Tight for Europeans.
• Europe, Asia and the Americas at once: there is no reasonable slot for everyone.

In that last case, you have two options. Either you run two live sessions, one in the morning for Europe and Asia and one in the afternoon for Europe and the Americas, and compare team times to crown the winners. Or you choose the Christmas game in weekly missions, the only format where everyone plays at their own time. Many companies combine both: the Christmas game for everyone in December, and a live session for the headquarters or one region.

And when part of the teams meets in person

For an international convention or a seminar in France, we come to you with an on-site escape game: a Game Master, one case per team (a tablet and physical clues), a 1.5-hour mission, up to 100 participants. Mix nationalities in each team so that people who only know each other on video finally meet.

An example: Triptease, 5 time zones

This international scale-up brought together teams spread across five time zones with a format designed for distance. → Read the Triptease case study (in French)

How to organise it, step by step

1. List your countries and time zones: they decide the format (live, several sessions, or play whenever you want).
2. Build the teams: by country for friendly competition, or mixed to create links between subsidiaries.
3. Prepare an announcement in French and English, shared by a local contact in each country.
4. Launch the challenge at the end of November, before the first holiday departures.
5. Close on video with the ranking by country.

Frequently asked questions

Is the game available in English?

Yes, our Christmas escape game and our online escape games are available in French and English.

What if our time zones are very far apart?

Choose our Christmas game in weekly missions: everyone plays at the time that suits them, and all results count in the same ranking. If you want a live collaborative escape game, run one session per time zone and compare team times.

Not all our colleagues celebrate Christmas. Is that a problem?

The game's world (Santa's workshop, the elves, the sleigh) is a playful setting rather than a religious celebration. You can also present the challenge as the company's year-end game.

Read in French

• Fin d'année avec des équipes internationales (version française)
• Team building de fin d'année : quel format choisir ?